There are very few places where one might find industry leaders from companies and institutions as diverse as the U.S. Air Force, Ford Motor Company, P&G, Boeing Phantom Works, Motorola and Armstrong Floor Products.

One area they do have in common is that they have an interest in ultraviolet (UV) and/or electron beam (EB) curing. For these companies and so many others, e|5: UV & EB Technology Conference & Expo, the world’s largest UV & EB event, presented by RadTech International and held at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL April 24-26, showcased the possibilities of using UV and EB technology.

The rapid growth of UV and EB are clearly illustrated by the record number of attendees, most notably end-users, who came to the show. By the end of the first day, e|5 already reached the attendance figures from the 2004 showcase in Charlotte, NC. RadTech International leaders were delighted with the show.

“I’m very happy with e|5,” said Gary Cohen, executive director of RadTech International NA. “Our pre-registrations are at a record number, and the number of end-users is up dramatically. In terms of attendance, after the first day we are already ahead of our total attendance at Charlotte in 2004. What is particularly interesting is that end-users are signing up for our conferences, which shows that they are very interested in how they can use energy-curing technologies.”

“With rising energy costs, increasing international competition, and continuing environmental concerns, manufacturers are increasingly looking to ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) technology to address these challenges,” said David Harbourne, RadTech president, and president of Fusion UV. “Our event highlighted this technology’s tremendous enabling versatility, with a broad cross-section of manufacturers in attendance including firms engaged in the production of motor vehicles, food packaging, ink jet products, aerospace and defense, wood, metals, plastics and electronics.”

“The aim of our event is to educate manufacturers about the operational benefits of UV and EB,” said Mickey Fortune, director of e|5. “At this event we recorded our highest number ever of UV/EB users and potential users seeking to learn the latest on the technology, with overall attendance at a record level reaching over 2,700.”

“Our objective at RadTech is to get more end-users to our conference,” said Paul Elias, business director, specialty products for Sartomer. “We have the right story to tell. That’s how we hope to grow it. UV and EB curing can save money and drive more business. These are two big keys.”

“We’re seeing good traffic and having good discussions with high-level technology leaders,” said Dr. Matthew Sheridan, product manager, Drew Industrial Specialty Additives, Division of Ashland Inc. “We’re seeing a good percentage of end-users.”

Conferences and Presentations

Among the highlights at e|5 were eight conferences for end users, featuring speakers from the companies mentioned above among many others. The technical conference featured 27 individual sessions while the exhibition itself was comprised of 120 companies and more than 90,000 square feet of displays.

The End-User Conference and Technical Conference were both highly successful, as attendees learned about new technologies and applications.

“We were pleased with the quality and quantity of the papers we received, which made it difficult to narrow down the papers to physically fit into our show,” said Mike Idacavage of Cytec Industries, chair of the Technical Conference Committee. “We are particularly happy with the session on Japanese UV technology, raw materials and coatings formulations. Attendance has been very good, and we have been very happy with the dialogue.”

There was also an area of the floor set aside for poster boards and also for Tech Cells, which are segmented by industry to showcase current and future applications of UV and EB technology. For example, the Automotive Tech Cell featured a Cadillac XLR, while the Wood Tech Cell featured products coated with UV currently done commercially or on pilot lines.

New Products For the Industry

For attendees, new products are of tremendous interest, and exhibitors had much to showcase.

“New products are the underpinnings of the industry,” said Bill Bayer, business director, Radcure, Americas for Cytec Industries.

“New technologies are the lifeblood of the industry,” added Scott Ravech, business director, Radcure, Americas for Cytec Industries. “We are helping manufacturers stay ahead of the curve.”

Cytec showcased more than 20 new UV/EB products, including its LEO resins, which address environmental requirements in Europe for indirect food contact packaging. They have very low odor and extractables, and are now being brought into the North American market. Other products featured for packaging were Viaflex 410, a UV/EB curable ink vehicle for shrink sleeve printing, Ebecryl 325, an acrylated adhesion promoter for UV/EB coating applications, and Ebecryl 341, a a new silicone-free, anti-slip agent.

Cytec’s booth drew much attention from attendees.

Introduced for publishing were Ebecryl 846 and Ebecryl 848, which are ideal for high-speed sheetfed presses, with Ebecryl 848 developed specifically to provide good carbon black pigment dispersions and for printing on porous substrates. For screen printing, Viaset 515, Viaset 520 and Viaset 521 were featured as new UV curable ink vehicles.

Viaset 211 and Viaset 212 were introduced as an ideal combination for non-porous substrates such as those in political signs and p-o-p displays, while Viaset 240 was showcased as a good energy curable litho ink vehicle for laminating inks, another growing technology being used in credit card and smart card applications.

“Our products are ahead of the curve, and are helping our customers shorten their time to market,” said JoAnn Arseneaux, Cytec Industries’ technical, service and development manager for graphics, Americas.

Sartomer Company featured 26 new oligomers and monomers as part of its exhibit at e|5, including 23 oligomers and three monomers for use in multiple UV/EB applications. The product features include plastics adhesion, pigment dispersant, low irritancy, low shrinkage, very low viscosity, fast cure, hardness, abrasion and high scratch resistance, flexibility and more.

Particularly noteworthy are CN2300, which is ideal for flexo and inkjet inks, electronics and metal decorating, and CN2304 for hardcoats, wood and plastic coatings. For ink manufacturers, CN2301, CN2302 and CN2303 are all ideal for flexo and inkjet inks. CN9006, CN9008 and CN9010 are high functionality aliphatic urethane acrylate oligomers designed for hard coatings on plastic and metal, while CN9009 is a similar system for screen inks.

“CN2300 and CN2304 are hyperbranched, polyester acrylate oligomers,” said Jim Horgan, vice president of technology for Sartomer. “CN2300 offers fast cure rates, low shrinkage and hardness, while CN2304 has high acrylate functionality, very fast cure and abrasion resistance.”

Cognis’ Polymers, Coatings & Inks business unit (PCI) showcased its customized approaches to the major challenges facing the coatings industry..“Hooked on Plastics” solution is Cognis’ approach to formulating UV coatings to meet the challenges associated with plastic substrates. This approach is based on the “3 Ss”, or the three key factors in good adhesion – surface tension, shrinkage and swelling capacity.

The “Smooth Operator” system was developed to meet difficult requirements in the area of substrate wetting including high surface tension in coatings, substrates with a low surface energy and surface contamination.

Perenol S57 is a solvent-free non-reactive slip modifier and leveling agent for ink, coatings and paints. It exhibits excellent surface wetting and reduction of surface tension.

“We have taken the time to understand the issues that are important to coatings formulators. Plastics coatings represent a particularly challenging field, where tailor-made solutions are needed if the best possible results are to be achieved with all the different types of plastics,” said Patrice Pinsard, global strategy and marketing PCI.

“Cognis’ new innovation management system places greater emphasis on collaboration with customers, and enables us to provide our partners with the innovative and individual solutions they need to succeed in their markets,” Mr. Pinsard added.

Shamrock Technologies showcased a number of new technologies, including its EverGlide wax emulsions and wax dispersions, which are dispersed in UV monomer. In addition, X7383 is a 25 percent nanoflon (PTFE) in oligomer and monomer for thin film abrasion resistance and slip.

“We’ve done really well and developed great contacts,” said Joe Coffey, Shamrock Technologies’ product manager – Product Technical Center. What I like about RadTech is that it is attended by technical people who are only interested in UV and EB.”

On hand to showcase its new turnkey system for food packaging were, from left, George Sickinger of Color Resolutions International,John Mitchell and Mark Tausche of Mark Andy/UVT; and Dr. Matthew Sheridan of Ashland.

Color Resolutions International (CRI), Ashland and Mark Andy’s UVT group announced an alliance for developing a turnkey system for food packaging. The system features CRI’s ink formulations, Ashland’s Drewrad 150 UV curable resin, which eliminates the use of photoinitiators, and equipment from Mark Andy that monitors the cure to ensure that it is FDA compliant.

“This allows us to get extractables down to a level that food manufactures feel is safe,” said George Sickinger, chairman, president and CEO of CRI. “This is an important area that we want to be in. This will allow printers to use surface printing and eliminate laminations.”

“With Drewrad 150, food packaging that was unthinkable by UV processes is now opened up to UV,” said Mr. Sheridan.

“We will now be able to provide converters with a turnkey system, recognized by the FDA as falling within FDA guidelines,” said UVT’s John Mitchell, product manager/sales manager.

The products are currently undergoing internal testing, and are expected to go to customers for further testing during the summer. It will be used for folding carton, tag & label and flexible packaging markets.

Rahn USA Corp. highlighted a number of new products for the UV/EB market, as well its range of services involving global sales and technical support.

Ciba Specialty Chemicals featured a host of products, including its Irgacure 379, which enables efficient through cure of multi-functional acrylates-based formulations which are widely used in offset, letterpress, flexo and screen UV inks, and Tinuvin 520 LB color stabilizing additive in dye-based inkjet inks as well as in inkjet receiver coating formulations.

Bomar Specialties showcased four brand-new polyester acrylates, including its BXI 100 system, which is ideal for dark section cure.

Red Spot Paint & Varnish Company had a wide variety of products, including its UVT 2525 EZ Recoat for metal cylinder applications, and its successful combination of UVB 700 metallic basecoat for plastic wheel trim applications, which is ideal when used with UVT 700 high performance topcoat for wheel trim applications.

Nordson Corp. exhibited its new Liquid UV coat and cure technology, featuring the RA-20 rotary atomizer and CoolWave 410 lampheads and power supplies.

“Nordson is in a unique position to provide both superior application equipment and state-of the art UV lamps,” states Chris Walters, marketing manager, Nordson liquid systems group. “The UV coat and cure process allows us to spray zero VOC, 100% solids coatings that are environmentally safe and cure them instantly to reduce product cycle times and inventory.”

Exhibitor Reactions

Exhibitors were happy with the results from e|5.

“The show has been fantastic for us,” said Willis Reese,’ Hexion’s director, new business development. “The number of customers and vendors has been excellent for us.”

“This is a fantastic show for all our criteria,” said Mike Kelly, president and CEO, Allied PhotoChemical, which showcased the company's capabilities, notably its Roie (Return on Investment and the Environment)) products. “We come to show to make new contacts, to meet people who want new technology, to send a message to raw material suppliers that we know what we are doing, to support RadTech and to let our competitors know we’re here. I’ve been overwhelmed by all the different opportunities that have presented themselves.”

“It’s been a good show for us,” said Ken Smith, Coatings Concepts International president. We’re doing some new stuff with monomers and there is a lot of interest.”
“We have been busy from the first minute,” said Bob Burk, marketing and communications manager for King Industries. “We’ve certainly made good technical contacts.”

Attendees Views

Attendees found the program to be interesting and informative.

“I was impressed with the attendance in the sections and on the exhibit floor. There were a lot of unique topics, which shows the expansion of the technology,” said Howard Ragin, president of Craig Adhesives.

“I have been really impressed with the number of new technologies I have seen,” said Don Duncan, director of R&D for Wikoff Color.

“The presentations I have gone to have been very informative, and the speakers have been very good,” said George Fuchs, NAPIM’s environmental affairs manager. “It’s set up very well.”

Mr. Sickinger was one of the founding board members of RadTech, and he said he was impressed with the show. “We’ve had some excellent contacts here,” Mr. Sickinger said. “The interest level is really terrific.”

With new applications continuing to emerge for UV and EB, RadTech International is planning ahead to meet the demand for more information from end-users. RadTech has scheduled uv.eb West 2007 in Southern California next February. For more information, check www.radtech.org.